Result: Mark Cavendish won Stage 11 beating André Greipel and Tyler Farrar to win his third stage of this year’s Tour.
Here’s how it happened: Once again, six riders formed an early breakway. This time there were three Frenchman trying to end the French stage winning drought in this year’s Tour.
But again, they failed to make it to the finish as the gap between the break and the peloton was never allowed to exceed five minutes. Despite a big attack by the Dutch rider Lars Boom, the bunch was all back together with just 2.5km to go as the sprinters geared up for one last hurrah before the Tour reaches the Pyrenées.
But after yesterday’s disappointing defeat to Greipel, there was no way Mark Cavendish was going to let this opportunity pass him by. It was a long straight road to the finish, much more standard fare than Cavendish has had to deal with in the opening week. Although heavy rain towards the end of the stage did make things more dangerous.
Cavendish overcame the combined might of the Garmin-Cervelo and Team Sky leadout trains to cross the line ahead of Greipel to get his revenge on the German.
The Big Winner: Mark Cavendish. Not only did the Manxman win the stage, but having picked up a number of points at the intermediate sprint earlier on in the stage, he also took the lead in the green jersey competition for the first time this year.
Despite winning the most amount of stages in each of the last three Tours, Cavendish is yet to win the Tour’s green jersey. He will be pushed all the way this year by the Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert.
The Big Loser: Alessandro Petacchi. The veteran Italian put his Lampre team at the front of the peloton in the last 2km. But having suffered a serious knee injury in a crash in 2006 when he broke his knee-cap he no longer enjoys messy bunch sprints in the rain.
And today’s sprint was most certainly that. As a result Petacchi faded badly to finish way back in 28th place. It was perhaps his last opportunity to win a stage in this year’s Tour. As he’s not in the running for the green jersey competition, he may not attempt to haul himself over the mountains to make it all the way to Paris.
What about the Irish? Nicolas Roche finished safely in the bunch once again alongside the other G.C. contenders. He took 45th place on the stage and with no major changes in the overall battle he remains in 13th place, 3’45″ behind the race leader Thomas Voeckler. For Roche, the Tour really starts tomorrow.
So what happens tomorrow then? Mountains. Big ones. The stage is 211km long and takes the riders from Cugnaux to the summit finish at Luz-Ardiden. The route entails three monster climbs including the famous Col du Tourmalet.
The likes of Contador, Evans and the Schleck brothers will no longer be conserving energy while watching the sprinters take centre stage. The real battle for the yellow jersey starts here and the fact that Contador has already conceded about 1’30″ in the early stages, means he will be looking to retrieve that time as soon as possible.
